Mets honor past greats, then get crushed, 14-1

A pregame ceremony honoring Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry gave Mets fans a welcome opportunity to escape to the championship days of 1986.

But once the 30-minute on-field presentation ended, the fans at Citi Field were forced to return their attention to the Mets' present-day reality, which seems to get worse by the day.

In suffering a 14-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday that manager Jerry Manuel described as "somewhat embarrassing," the Mets continued their downward spiral away from playoff contention. They finished their homestand 3-3 and have lost 16 of their last 23 at a time when they desperately need a winning streak.

Now they head to Atlanta and Philadelphia to face two National League East rivals that they're chasing in the standings; the Mets, tied with the Marlins, trail the Braves by 6 1/2 games and the Phillies by four.

As players left the clubhouse for their charter flight after the lopsided loss, they made it clear they realize they're nearing a make-or-break stretch.

"It's getting to the point where we need to get hot, go on a roll and rattle off some serious wins in a row, especially against the teams we're chasing," David Wright said. "We've really dug ourselves a hole."

It's been nearly six weeks since the Mets (53-52) have won even two in a row. That last happened against the Tigers June 22-23. Since then the Mets have lost 22 of 34 games, including five of six to the Diamondbacks, a team that owns one of the league's worst records (39-66), is 0-10 against the rest of the National League since the All-Star break and recently fired its manager.

Against the Mets, though, the Diamondbacks look like an elite team. On Sunday, they torched Jon Niese for seven runs in 4 1/3 innings, including two three-run home runs by Adam LaRoche. And Daniel Hudson, a 23-year-old acquired from the White Sox two days earlier, held the Mets to one run and three hits through eight innings.

"It definitely hurts your pride a bit when you perform in that manner," Manuel said. "We didn't pitch. We didn't hit. And we didn't catch it. That's somewhat embarrassing in front of your home fans where you have built up such tremendous momentum at your home park."

Niese actually cruised in the early innings, retiring the first 10 Diamondbacks hitters. But he ran into trouble in the fourth, and neither he nor the Mets recovered. By the time the fifth inning was over, Arizona led 8-0, thanks mostly to two moonshots by LaRoche in consecutive innings.

Manuel made a double-switch when he took Niese out with one out in the fifth inning, also pulling Jeff Francoeur off the field.

Although Manuel said that had nothing to do with Francoeur's latest slump, it was the latest low for the rightfielder. When asked if being replaced not even midway through the game was upsetting to him, Francoeur said, "It is what it is. It was a -- game all around. That's what it is."

Just how bad did it get for the Mets? So bad that little-used mop-up man Oliver Perez was summoned from the bullpen in the eighth with the Mets down 10-1. The fans who remained seemed to find some bizarre enjoyment in booing the enigmatic lefthander as he gave up four runs in the final two innings.

"The pitching definitely didn't show up and the offense definitely didn't show up," Wright said. "That's the result you're going to get when you don't really do any parts of the game the way you're capable of."